Race around the base

Two challengers for the AWPC Harriers championship ran around the perimeter of AWE Aldermaston in October, one clockwise and the other anti-clockwise completing the 4.69 miles in just over an hour.

I set off in the direction of the north ponds, taking a slight detour around the triffid like fern and bramble area. This entailed balancing along a log over a mud filled ditch taking precious seconds off my mile time but soon I was running up behind the MDP dog compound, across the ground that it cost them £6m in compensation to contaminate and on toward the explosives area, scene of the massive fire calamity of August 2010 which caused an unprecedented evacuation of Red Lane.

Red Lane itself was easier going, and shortly after rounding the south east corner of AWE Aldermaston, I ran into my nemesis and arch-rival running in the opposite direction. She had obviously covered quite a bit more ground than me while I'd been bogged down round the back so I knew I had to speed up for the last 2.5 miles past the main gate, around west gate, past the Orion laser and back to Dingly Dell.

Unfortunately, although I did improve my pace on the flat, so did she, coming in a whole 3 minutes ahead of me. So, the bar has been set reasonably low for future challengers for the AWPC Harriers Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston Perimeter title.